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@smbhax
Member since Nov 2019 • United States
About
Just a guy makin' comics.
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Re: Comic Prompts (Share your thoughts with Art)
School is useful, but it can't teach you your own individual style--you'll have to learn that on your own. School teaches you other peoples' styles--but it's useful to know those, to see possibilities.
@smbhax
commented on the blog
6 years ago
Re: Announcing Creator Pro - GlobalComix For Professionals
Aw my heart emoticon broke, oops : o
@smbhax
commented on the blog
6 years ago
Re: Announcing Creator Pro - GlobalComix For Professionals
Need a <3 button for the ^ comment ; )
Re: No feedback, back button after adding frame; text entry lost going to frame edit
I got tripped up and lost data on the Edit Release Settings page today--I'd entered a title and Chapter synopsis, then uploaded a page, and clicked its Edit button to add a frame--this took me to the frame edit page, and I lost my entered title and synopsis.
I did get a pop-up warning about losing data, but I get those so regularly in normal web browsing that I reflexively dismissed it without thinking about it. : /
Maybe one thing that would help here (aside from the auto-save you at one point said was meant to be in there) would be greying-out the "Save changes" button when there are no changes to be saved; currently it is always an "active"-looking, fairly bright orange, which doesn't help clue the user in when they actually have unsaved changes.
(Also having the frame edit UI in a pop-over frame rather than taking you to a separate page; that would help solve the confusing back navigation from that page, as I think I've mentioned elsewhere before.)
I did get a pop-up warning about losing data, but I get those so regularly in normal web browsing that I reflexively dismissed it without thinking about it. : /
Maybe one thing that would help here (aside from the auto-save you at one point said was meant to be in there) would be greying-out the "Save changes" button when there are no changes to be saved; currently it is always an "active"-looking, fairly bright orange, which doesn't help clue the user in when they actually have unsaved changes.
(Also having the frame edit UI in a pop-over frame rather than taking you to a separate page; that would help solve the confusing back navigation from that page, as I think I've mentioned elsewhere before.)
Re: Notifications
Read vs unread notifications are a different color in the Notifications list now, but the color difference is perhaps overly subtle--I had to look hard to spot the one unread notification in this list:
Re: "Edit" button label is not black like the other buttons below page thumb
Sure, here it is at 100%, and enlarged to 240% in Firefox under Windows 10:
Seeing the lettering magnified, it looks like it isn't a color difference between the two, but that "Edit" is not bold like "View."
Seeing the lettering magnified, it looks like it isn't a color difference between the two, but that "Edit" is not bold like "View."
Re: Move image upload interface to top of Edit Release Settings
Ah, yeah, now the Edit Release Settings page that comes up has the upload UI at the upper right, and there's no second Edit Release Settings page--so, all taken care of!
Re: Move image upload interface to top of Edit Release Settings
Yeah, there are two "Edit Release Settings" screens. The one you posted a picture of was first one--prior to this week. This week, when I'm creating a new release, I first get what used to be the *second* Edit Release Settings screen:

Its image adding UI is down below the red "Delete Release" button at the bottom of the screenshot.
Once I click the "Schedule & Publish" button, and confirm the pop-up window or something, I'm taken to what used to be the first Edit Release Settings screen, but this week has become the second:
Its image adding UI is down below the red "Delete Release" button at the bottom of the screenshot.
Once I click the "Schedule & Publish" button, and confirm the pop-up window or something, I'm taken to what used to be the first Edit Release Settings screen, but this week has become the second:
"Edit" button label is not black like the other buttons below page thumb
Once you've uploaded a comic page, it appears as a thumbnail, with a few buttons below it: "Edit," "View," and a settings button.
"View" and the icon for the settings button are black. The text label for "Edit," though, is grey, making the button almost appear to be disabled, even though it is active.
The "Edit" label should probably be black, rather than grey.
"View" and the icon for the settings button are black. The text label for "Edit," though, is grey, making the button almost appear to be disabled, even though it is active.
The "Edit" label should probably be black, rather than grey.
Move image upload interface to top of Edit Release Settings
Creating a new release now goes directly to the Edit Release Settings page. Unlike the old initial release creation page, Edit Release Settings has the image upload interface at the bottom of the page, rather than the top.
It's easy to miss down there, under the Publish and Delete buttons. Also, since uploading can take a little time, workflow-wise it would be more efficient to start the pages uploading first, filling in the information fields while that's happening. So, it might be better to have the upload interface at the top of the page, rather than the bottom.
It's easy to miss down there, under the Publish and Delete buttons. Also, since uploading can take a little time, workflow-wise it would be more efficient to start the pages uploading first, filling in the information fields while that's happening. So, it might be better to have the upload interface at the top of the page, rather than the bottom.
Re: Chapter synopsis "max length exceeded" could be more informative
^ Eh okay the HTML "& + quot + ;" still converted into a quotation mark, even though I had it in the "code" tag.
Re: Chapter synopsis "max length exceeded" could be more informative
(Like, quotation marks being converted into
"
Re: Chapter synopsis "max length exceeded" could be more informative
Huh, that same text chunk was also hitting an over 400 error on the new Smack Jeeves, even though its text counter only counted it as 396. I wonder if both sites are converting some of the special characters there into code characters that are then counted as more characters. (For SJ, I deleted most of that row of tilde characters, and then it went through.)
Re: Chapter synopsis "max length exceeded" could be more informative
(My edits to posts seem to be timing out, then maybe turning out to have gone through somehow anyway when I make a new post.)
First/last comic navigation
Currently, GC's comic browsing layout has no navigation links to jump directly to the first or last pages of a comic; you do have next/previous "release" links, but for someone like me who releases just one page at a time, these are just redundant next/previous page links--and just trying to navigate from the start of the comic to the end, or the end to the start, can take a prohibitively long time.
Page Settings page of unsaved release is unformatted, image gets lost
- On Comic Details page, click "Create new release"
- On Release Settings page, click "Click or drag image files..."
- Select an image and upload it
- On the thumbnail for the uploaded image, click the small gear icon
= Instead of the small pop-up panel you get if you click the gear icon of a saved page, you are taken to what appears to be an unformatted page, with various plain text, image, and form elements listed down the left side of the screen.
Additionally, if at this point you hit the Back button in your browser--which seems to be the only way out--you will find that the image you had uploaded is now missing.
- On Release Settings page, click "Click or drag image files..."
- Select an image and upload it
- On the thumbnail for the uploaded image, click the small gear icon
= Instead of the small pop-up panel you get if you click the gear icon of a saved page, you are taken to what appears to be an unformatted page, with various plain text, image, and form elements listed down the left side of the screen.
Additionally, if at this point you hit the Back button in your browser--which seems to be the only way out--you will find that the image you had uploaded is now missing.
Reading List, Notifications, Conversations buttons not functional on forum post pages
While on a forum post page, like this one, the Reading List (eyeball), Notifications (bell), and Conversations (word balloons) buttons on the site's top right menu are not functional: the number normally overlaid on Notifications does not appear, for instance, and clicking on any of the buttons pops up a small, blank text field.
(By the way, these buttons also, in any page, don't seem to have hover text, which could help the user who doesn't understand the meaning of their image.)
(By the way, these buttons also, in any page, don't seem to have hover text, which could help the user who doesn't understand the meaning of their image.)
Release manager says page is missing frames, but it has one
The release manager is telling me this page of mine is missing frames
https://globalcomix.com/c/supermassive-black-hole-a-/chapters/en/8/1/1
but it has a frame, pretty much exactly like my other pages, which the manager is okay with. I can't tell what's wrong with the frame on this one, it looks pretty normal as far as I can see.
https://globalcomix.com/c/supermassive-black-hole-a-/chapters/en/8/1/1
but it has a frame, pretty much exactly like my other pages, which the manager is okay with. I can't tell what's wrong with the frame on this one, it looks pretty normal as far as I can see.
Release "Status: release is not published" looks like a radio button
On the release edit page, a readout near the bottom says "Status" followed by a line break, a grey circle, and text to the left of the circle ("release is not published").
The gray circle looks like a standard HTML form "radio" selection element, making this readout rather confusing--I was wondering why "release is not published" was not marked with a radio selection or something.
A regular dash or something similar in place of the circle would be clearer.
(Also, there's an inherent textual contradiction in the phrase "release is not published," ie "release is not released"--which, without context, could make this particular status a little confusing. : p)
The gray circle looks like a standard HTML form "radio" selection element, making this readout rather confusing--I was wondering why "release is not published" was not marked with a radio selection or something.
A regular dash or something similar in place of the circle would be clearer.
(Also, there's an inherent textual contradiction in the phrase "release is not published," ie "release is not released"--which, without context, could make this particular status a little confusing. : p)
Chapter synopsis "max length exceeded" could be more informative
After typing out a "synopsis" entry for a new release, I got a "max length exceeded" error when clicking the "Save changes" button.
But there is no indication of what the max length is, or how far I was over it, leaving me to try cutting my text down via trial and error until the page would finally save without the error.
Ideally, there would be a "[current characters/max characters]" updating readout at a corner of the text entry field.
But there is no indication of what the max length is, or how far I was over it, leaving me to try cutting my text down via trial and error until the page would finally save without the error.
Ideally, there would be a "[current characters/max characters]" updating readout at a corner of the text entry field.
Automated frame add suggestions (and a frame help suggestion)
Since I have a single-frame comic, selfishly speaking I would find it really handy if GC, in the absence of me adding a frame, would just add a frame around the whole comic image automatically.
As it is, I have to go in and add a frame to every page, or risk wonky mobile page visibility.
~~~~~~~
Adding a frame is a little clunky, I have a hard time lining the frame up with the exact borders of my image. It feels as though there should be a bit of a "snap to border" function there.
~~~~~~~~
That little "help" style pop-up thing in the upper left of the frame add area didn't in fact seem to offer any help, it just said I'm the help thing and that was pretty much it. It seemed like maybe I could click on its text "balloon" to have it go through some tips, but the text wasn't clickable, and clicking the little critter graphic just closed the text. So I got nothing out of it, really.
As it is, I have to go in and add a frame to every page, or risk wonky mobile page visibility.
~~~~~~~
Adding a frame is a little clunky, I have a hard time lining the frame up with the exact borders of my image. It feels as though there should be a bit of a "snap to border" function there.
~~~~~~~~
That little "help" style pop-up thing in the upper left of the frame add area didn't in fact seem to offer any help, it just said I'm the help thing and that was pretty much it. It seemed like maybe I could click on its text "balloon" to have it go through some tips, but the text wasn't clickable, and clicking the little critter graphic just closed the text. So I got nothing out of it, really.
No feedback, back button after adding frame; text entry lost going to frame edit
When adding a release:
If I type in the title and synopsis of a release, then click the "add frame" button, the text I had typed in for the title and synopsis is lost (not saved).
In the add frame page, there is no clear "back" button. I know there *is* a link I can click to get back to the release edit page, but it isn't obvious, and it also isn't obvious that the frame edit(s) I just made will be saved if I click it.
If I type in the title and synopsis of a release, then click the "add frame" button, the text I had typed in for the title and synopsis is lost (not saved).
In the add frame page, there is no clear "back" button. I know there *is* a link I can click to get back to the release edit page, but it isn't obvious, and it also isn't obvious that the frame edit(s) I just made will be saved if I click it.
